Secure Caching Scheme Using Blockchains for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Assisted Information-Centric Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

This paper proposes a caching data protection scheme that uses blockchains and hashchains for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted information-centric wireless sensor networks in smart-city applications as a case study. In the consensus scheme of the proposed scheme, a new block is verified according to voting by validators without exhaustive mining computations. Therefore, the proposed scheme is suitable for resource-limited wireless and mobile devices. With the scheme, UAVs work as validators as well as data collectors, and the overhead of transaction-fee management can be eliminated. Validators are responsible for block verifications; thus, the proposed scheme maintains the consensus by detecting and removing validators that vote incorrectly by using hashchain-based signatures. Simulations were conducted to evaluate the proposed scheme, and the results revealed the requirements for implementing it in smart-city applications and its robustness, feasibility, and effectiveness.